Senior IT Manager

The role

• This is the first dedicated IT leadership role across the portfolio. You are not inheriting a function. You are building one.
• You will own IT end-to-end for ~200 people across 5+ agencies: the tools, the identity layer, the vendor stack, the BYOD posture, and the baseline cybersecurity and compliance that unblocks enterprise client deals. Daily support volume is low, around two access requests a day. This is not a helpdesk job. It is a builder's job with a clear growth track toward leadership.
• You will partner with the COO, the founders, and the operations team to design an IT function that scales with future acquisitions and gets Fieldtrip ready for SOC 2 Type II and GDPR-grade governance without bloating the team or the budget.

What you'll do

• Own the IT function end-to-end. Systems, identity, access, onboarding, offboarding, tooling, and vendor relationships across every portfolio company.
• Design for BYOD and distributed teams. Build a security posture that works for personal devices, contractor workflows, and cross-border data realities.
• Rationalise the stack. Kill shadow IT, consolidate overlapping SaaS tools, and deliver visible monthly savings on platforms like Figma, Notion, Airtable, Adobe Suite and their cousins.
• Stand up baseline security. MFA, SSO, endpoint protection, incident response, and a living risk register aligned to NIST CSF or ISO 27001.
• Get us client-ready. Microsoft 365 setup that just works, enterprise security questionnaires answered without scrambling, and a trajectory toward SOC 2 Type II and GDPR-grade data handling.
• Lead, write, document. Turn tribal knowledge into runbooks. Explain IT risk and tradeoffs in plain English. Build the function so it doesn't depend on you.

What we're looking for
Must-haves

• 5+ years of hands-on IT ownership at a remote-first Startup or Scale-up, ideally a marketing or creative agency, or a tech startup.
• Experience building an IT function from scratch, or meaningfully restructuring one.
• Deep, practical BYOD experience securing a distributed, contractor-heavy workforce.
• Strong identity and access management foundation (Azure AD + Google Workspace).
• A builder mindset. You ship systems that run without you.
• Applied experience with NIST CSF, ISO 27001, or SOC 2 type II + working knowledge of GDPR / CCPA.
• Excellent written communication. Documentation is a first-class deliverable here.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with POPIA (South Africa) and or PIPEDA (Canada).
• CISSP, CISM, CompTIA Security+, or equivalent certification (not required).
• Experience handling enterprise security questionnaires and client procurement alignment.
• Prior portfolio / multi-entity IT experience.
• Awareness of CASL as it relates to influencer and campaign outreach.

Not a great fit if

• Your experience is tied to a helpdesk ticket queue.
• You come from a 10,000+ person corporate IT department and haven't worked in a high-paced startup environment
• You want to advise and move on. This is an ownership role for someone looking for a long-term career growth track.